THERE are concerns for a missing grandfather, with a crime scene declared at a house just north of the Gold Coast.

Police say the disappearance of 71-year-old David Hanson is suspicious and they are searching for clues relating to a possible murder at the house on Snowdon Street in Kingston.

Mr Hanson has not made contact with friends or family since leaving the address on February 22 and was reported missing by his daughter on Sunday.

The Brisbane Times reports, Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said the grandfather worked as a mining consultant in Tanzania and often flew between Australia and Africa.

He arrived back in Brisbane from South Africa on February 18, and was due to catch a return flight on the 22nd. However, he never made it to the airport.

“When he did not arrive back in South Africa, the other people involved in the mining over there became concerned. They contacted Mr Hanson’s family here in Brisbane and that occurred on the 28th of February,” Superintendent Hutchinson said.

Superintendent Hutchinson said Mr Hanson had been staying with a friend in his 20s at the Snowdon Street house.

“The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Mr Hanson are suspicious in our view, and we do hold grave concerns for his welfare,” he said.

Police are checking whether Mr Hanson’s phone and bank accounts have been accessed but are yet to find any activity.

They have also searched a red Hyundai, which is believed to be linked with Mr Hanson’s friend’s property.

He is described as about 170 centimetres tall and has a slim build and is bald. Police said he now has a moustache.

SOME of Queensland’s brightest and most motivated teenagers will travel from all over the state to attend a unique leadership forum at Bond University tomorrow.

About 200 hundred RSL Youth Development Program (YDP) grant winners will participate in the one-day forum, which is aimed at inspiring them to pursue their dreams.

The students have already qualified for RSL YDP grants to put towards a diverse range of projects from nanotechnology and biomedicine, to Irish dancing, overseas aid, stand-up paddle racing and jazz music.

RSL Queensland Branch President Terry Meehan said the leadership forum offered extra focus for a very determined group of teens.

“It’s not just these young people who benefit, their parents are included in most aspects of the forum so they all know where they’re headed as a family unit,” Mr Meehan said.

“It’s a great example of mutual appreciation and bonding between parents and their kids.”

Guanaba Rural Fire Brigade saving lives by fighting fires in Pimpama at the end of last year. PICTURE: Cameron Neville SOURCE: Supplied.

THE State Government has accused the City of Gold Coast of siphoning close to a million dollars worth of critical funding from our rural hinterland fire brigades.

Council have responded, stating the new Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue levy on Gold Coast rural properties covered only some of the overall costs for the Rural Fire Brigades, not their operational costs.

Social media exploded with backlash last night after a volunteer firefighter claimed the brigades funding had been slashed and that would ultimately put thousands of people across the coast at risk.

In response to our article on Wednesday night, the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency services today accused Gold Coast City Council of “ripping money out of the services”.

“(Council) must immediately restore this crucial funding and quit playing politics with our hard working firefighters,” he said.

On the Gold Coast, rural fire brigades play a huge role in community safety, with the city surrounded by thick vegetation and mountainous terrain.

Volunteer Rural Firefighters were responsible for keeping thousands of people safe when a bushfire raged near Dreamworld. PICTURE: Supplied.

Seven City of Gold Coast Councillors that have Rural Fire Brigades within their divisions have requested a meeting with the State Members with affected brigades in their electorates on March 26 at the Council Chambers to discuss the issue.

When approached for comment, Council issued myGC with a statement explaining why they decided to stop collecting the Rural Fire Brigade Levy.

“The City of Gold Coast previously collected a fee from rural ratepayers to subsidise the $575,000 annual cost to run the Rural Fire Brigade Service,” A spokesperson for the City of Gold Coast told myGC.

“From January 1 this year, the State Government introduced a new Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue levy which the City was compelled to collect from ratepayers on its behalf.

“For the first time, this levy applied to properties outside of the urban areas. Given that there were then two levies applying to the rural properties, Council resolved to stop collecting the Rural Fire Brigade Levy,” Council said.

The Guanaba Rural Fire Brigade have openly expressed their concerns, having placed a large banner informing locals of the changes outside their hinterland station.

Guanaba Rural Fire Brigade placed this sign outside their hinterland station to inform locals of the changes. SOURCE: Supplied.

DOES US civil rights saint Martin Luther King Jr’s reputation take a bruising in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop – is the king hit? – or does it just give the seemingly omnipotent oracle a human disposition?

There’s little doubting that great men – and women – have always had to live with the contrast between their public persona and their humanity.

We like our heroes to be diamonds but, of course, diamonds are flawed and ultimately, when the rain comes, it always falls harder in the middle of the square.

The Memphis playwright’s 2010 Olivier Award winning play, recently seen on Broadway with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, goes behind closed doors on the last night of the great man’s life.

It’s a rainy April 1968 night in Memphis when the head of the Civil Rights Movement checks into room 306 at the rather bleak downbeat Lorraine Motel.

The man himself, played by Mzembe, is world weary, and probably rather lonely as many exalted people on the road can be, so coffee and bed seem the order of the night.

That’s until the fiery, feisty, bold and brassy maid Camae (Bowers) comes into his lonely planet orbit like an unpredictable meteorite.

The next 90 minutes, without interval, is a bitter-sweet, funny, testy, sad and finally out of this world look at the man behind the myth.

Plus – he’s not picture perfect.

Therein lies the controversy.

It is an American star struck thing.

The idea Over There is that once you put someone on a pedestal it is undignified to look up their skirt and as for looking them in the honest eye? That’s a definite no-no.

So when US superstar and actor’s actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose at the age of 46 recently, Gilmore Girls star Jared Padalecki ‘stupid’ comment on Twitter caused a social media eruption worthy of Mt Vesuvius.

He was covered in verbal trash.

(I said something similar on twitter but luckily I live in a little hamlet called Obscurity Heights and belong to a lost tribe known as the Nobodies.)

However, King Jr, who died nearly 50 years ago at the age of 39, is now postage stamp and national holiday material, so alluding to his smoking, flirting, cursing and sometimes despairing ways has become a perennial taboo.

I don’t have any problems with the 30-year-old playwright’s commitment to the real world – I happen to believe that everyone who is born human probably is and death is the conclusive proof – but that wasn’t what fired up my enthusiasm for the play.

I found the first half – or maybe the first 30 minutes – was more So-So then Good God and it was the move into what’s been compared to as the Twilight Zone that proved to be most intriguing.

In the course of The Mountaintop – the title comes from his last speech, ‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop,’ – we get a surfeit of warts and all, but there’s the fantastical and the future as well.

The result is a marriage of mediums and we all know how rough that institution can be with its heady mix of best and worst of times.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD Gold Coast Twins Matthew and Harry have known little other than discomfort and pain, all their lives, suffering from severe eczema and life-threatening allergies.

As a result of a massive community campaign led by family friend Marion Andersson, in June this year the boys – along with single mum Melanie and the boys Grandma who is a registered nurse – will travel to the renowned Avene Hydrotherapy Centre* in France where they will receive treatment for their debilitating eczema and allergies over a period of 21 days.

It will be the first of three visits over the next three years that could potentially change their lives forever.

myGC highlighted the boys campaign, Two Little Boys to Avene, earlier this year and their story has gone on to touch the hearts of thousands of people across the world.

Four-year-old twins Matthew & Harry already have their bags packed, ready for their first trip to France for treatment in June. PICTURE: Supplied.

Marion has spent the past few months tirelessly trying to raise the money needed to fund the boy’s current and future flights, treatment and stay in France.

Fight Like a Pro are going all out to ‘take a punch’ for Harry and Matthew, at an entertaining boxing event at Jupiter’s Casino on Saturday, March 29.

Ben Illes of Benjamin Constructions on the Gold Coast is the driving force behind the latest event in support of the twins and the event will also feature a massive auction with thousands of dollars worth of items up for grabs, all powered by Erebus Motorsport. Details of the auction can be found at the bottom of this article.

A range of seating options are available at various prices. To help support the brothers cause, book your tickets by either phoning 07 5568 0000, emailing info@fightlikeapro.com.au or visiting the Fight Like A Pro website.

Already, close to $30,000 has been raised in donations and, thanks to the generous support of the Gold Coast community, the young brothers were also announced as winners of an additional $5,000 Sunsuper Dreams grant after more than 5,600 people voted for them to win.

Gold Coast comedian and entertainer Col Elliot volunteered his time and headlined a massive fundraiser at Runaway Bay Leagues Club on February 15, which included performances from Goldie & The Bear and Dean Vegas (A – A Tribute to Elvis).

For more information on the twin’s condition, current situation, and to follow their progress, you can read more on their Facebook Page, “Two Little Boys to Avene“.

*The Avene clinic is known for it’s success in treating their allergy patients with water sourced from a local spring, under the direction of Dermatologists.

MOTORSPORT AUCTION – Powered by Erebus Motorsport. The three top prizes include;

(1) A ‘hot lap’ with Lee Holdsworth in his #4 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG V8 Supercar at the Erebus corporate ride day. These days are held at the Queensland Raceway in Ipswich in early August (exact date to be announced) , at the Sydney Motorsport Park on August 25, and at Calder Park in Melbourne on September 16.

(2) A Lee Holdsworth signed 2013 race suit. This is the suit that Holdsworth wore at the 2013 Clipsal 500 race – the first official V8 race for Erebus Motorsport.

(3) Four tickets to the Queensland Raceway V8 Supercar Event on August 1-3, which includes a behind the scenes pit tour of the Erebus Motorsport Garage, a Meet & Greet with Lee Holdsworth and four Grid Walk passes to get out on the track.

FAST FACTS ABOUT EREBUS MOTORSPORT:

• Founded in 2011.
• Won 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour.
• Won six races in the 2013 Australian GT Championship.
• Won on debut with Mika Hakkinen in the 2013 GT Asia Series at Zhuhai (China).
• Brought AMG Customer Sports to the V8 Supercars Championship from 2013.
• Awarded 2011’s AMG Customer Sports Program ‘Best Presented Car’.
• In Greek mythology, Erebus (darkness) is the father of Light (Ether), the son of Chaos and the brother of Eros – the love God.

Live it, Love it! myGC is an online go-to for the Gold Coast. Along with our radio station 1029 Hot Tomato, we are at the heart of the GC community. While Hot Tomato is what you listen to on the Coast, myGC brings the Coast to life with breaking news, traffic and weather updates when you need them, sport, events, videos, photos, entertainment news and lifestyle content. We’re about the lifestyle we love here, and the people who live it.

myGC is the official Hot Tomato website and you’ll find all things Hot Tomato on myGC from live streaming and show info, to events and competitions.

myGC – the life & soul of the Gold Coast!
1029 Hot Tomato, playing the Gold Coast's Best Music!

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